ANNUAL LECTURE 2017- Children of Perpetrators: Living in the Shadow of Evil

How do you live with the knowledge that your father ordered the death of thousands of innocent people? Children of parents who have committed or been involved in atrocities have to live with the guilt of their parents’ deeds, even when guilt is acknowledged by the parents. Because of their family history, these children often become “lightning conductors” for social guilt, tainted with the mark of evil. Drawing on clinical material and interviews of children of Nazi SS officers, this talk will look at the personal psychological repercussions and conflicts that children of perpetrators face in their lives and relate this to the wider social implications in managing the aftermath of extreme violence and inhumanity.

Coline Covington, Ph.D., B.P.C. is a Training Analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychology and the British Psychotherapy Foundation and former Chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council. She is a Fellow of International Dialogue Initiative (IDI), a think tank formed by Prof. Vamik Volkan, Lord Alderdice and Dr. Robi Friedman to apply psychoanalytic concepts in understanding political conflict.

From 2011 to 2013 Coline was Visiting Research Fellow in International Politics and Development at the Open University and Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C..